conditioning
Americannoun
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conditionings
plural
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Also called operant conditioning, instrumental conditioning. a process of changing behavior by rewarding or punishing a subject each time an action is performed until the subject associates the action with pleasure or distress.
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Also called classical conditioning, Pavlovian conditioning, respondent conditioning. a process in which a stimulus that was previously neutral, as the sound of a bell, comes to evoke a particular response, as salivation, by being repeatedly paired with another stimulus that normally evokes the response, as the taste of food.
noun
adjective
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Origin of conditioning
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He didn’t allow air conditioning in his office, so his traders dripped with sweat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
In the last 25 years, a new roof was installed, as well as air conditioning units and water heaters.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Portable fans and air conditioning units were also visible.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
TUI River Cruises said it had experienced "unexpected technical issues affecting air conditioning systems" as well as other challenges caused by low water levels on the Danube.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
I don’t realize how hot it was outside until I step into Virgil’s house and feel the cool buzz of the air conditioning.
From "Hello, Universe" by Erin Entrada Kelly
At both, the luxury treatment begins with a detailed scalp analysis followed by a neck and shoulder massage and repeated shampooings and conditionings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2025
Francis Galton, pioneer student of the conditionings of human faculty, left an interesting study of the visualising capacity, so far as it could be attacked by the statistical method.
From The Glands Regulating Personality by Louis Berman M.D.
If we are to have a more rationalized form of social control, then, it will undoubtedly take into consideration the necessity of forming the socially desirable conditionings of the emotional life.
From Taboo and Genetics A Study of the Biological, Sociological and Psychological Foundation of the Family by Melvin Moses Knight
He sensed the change that possessed her, the struggling of new emotions, the shattering of imposed concepts and conditionings and their realigning to shape a new personality, a new person.
From Assignment's End by Roger D. Aycock
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
